The Old World: Beyond and Below (CCW)
Once the domain of many races, humans gradually took over Mozra and the south of Draedah, expelling the Wynder and pushing out the Guiyants. But the mighty races of ancient legend still remain just beyond the human periphery. Our old nemesis, the Draede, dominate most of Draedah, the Guiyants still hold sway over their home island, and the mysterious Toguir reside deep below. Even the Ferali still live among us, scattered across not just the Old World, but all of human civilization. Draedah: the Druids The Draede, or the Druids, are the archetypal Stranger, perhaps even the first race to bear that name. To humanity, they are the ultimate boogeyman. They are what lurks in the forests; the tree people, the savages. When humanity worshiped the Immortals, it was said that the Druids fed their own gods to a resurrected demon. When humanity turned to rationalism and philosophy, the Druids were painted as superstitious and deranged, cannibals who sacrificed their young in dark rituals. Their green or crinkly-brown skin, their pupil-less eyes, and their strange habit of growing back limbs did not help their case. Nor did their ominous proximity to humanity--a dark, dripping blade hanging over the courts of the Old World. Empires have attempted to take their continent and have always failed spectacularly. Expeditions have attempted to make contact and establish trade. Few have returned, and only after harrowing escape. And what we have learned from these survivors is far stranger than we could have imagined, and far more grand and wonderful, too. The Draede seem to be one, united people with a civilization that covers the whole vast continent of Draedah, save for humanity’s slice in the very south. The continent is rife with drastic scenery and wild, impossible creatures; lion-sized wolves and brilliantly feathered dragons marauding up gigantic, awesome trees with gnarled branches and roots, swinging into each other, grappling and twisting around each other, as if frozen in some great battle. And the Druids themselves are tied to this land like no other race is tied to its territory. They have taken on its likeness. The green ones, with skin like leaves, and the brown ones with skin like bark--they are born from the trees themselves and can go weeks without food, subsisting, like their kindreds on sunlight, water, and soil. But there are more Druids in the interior--with blue and red and purple skin--even silver, or crystal--each with their own origins and properties, each with their own purpose, bred into them during their seedling days. Druids act out their parts unflinchingly, in some lofty scheme perhaps they don’t even understand. Perhaps it is their queens and priests that pull the strings from atop their pyramids, or perhaps something in the land itself that controls and compels them all. Whatever it is, the Druids are now driven to act in ways they never have before. Their regular assaults on the northern border of Mathsra have ceased. They have been spotted on their western coast building and manning ships. And now their strange Compassic religion has taken over the Potecan, and spreads rapidly around the world. Notes: The Druids seem to have various forms of magic, one of which is an induced sorcery. Some of the most disturbing stories recount Druid children being doused in some terribly inky liquid and thrown into death chambers to awaken innate magical abilities far beyond what human sorcery can accomplish. Qeluin: the Guiyants The Guiyants, also called the Qeluor, were already dwindling in number when they abandoned Mozra during the second War against the Gods. They once occupied all of the west and south of the Old World, but human invasions, the wrath of their own gods, and internal dysfunction led to their gradual downfall. By the time the War began, there was just one Guiyant city remaining, which they burned to the ground before retreating to their home continent of Qeluin. They ended contact with the outside world soon after that, except for some very limited trade. The Guiyants are among the oldest races; immortal beings with great majestic horns, and leathery skin, deep blue, red, or ink black in color. When humans knew them, they possessed a magic that was assumed to be derived from their gods, but some have suggested that they practiced a form of magecraft before humans ever did. At their height they were master architects, building structures that rivaled the mountains around them, structures which still loom over the Mozran landscape today. They were highly cultured, bureaucratic, and spoke sometimes in verse or flowery prose, but this was all an expression of their love for learning. Their greatest buildings were their libraries and museums, some of which stand larger than any human city in existence. If all this wealth and information was lost or taken with them back to Qeluin, we may never know. Below: the Toguir The only frequent interactions that humans have with the Toguir are with cave trolls—brutish beasts with low intelligence, driven out entirely from any areas with even moderate population. But it has long been known that trolls are simply one breed within the Toguir race, who dwell deep underground in a network of tunnels and caverns stretching across Mozra and Draedah. Stories say the Toguir that live deeper down are much larger, or much smaller than the trolls—or both. They are also said to be more intelligent, that they work with the Druids somehow; that they are blind, or have their own sun in the center of the earth. Whatever they are, they’ve never had a reason to come to the surface, and humanity has never felt the need to venture down. Without a Home: the Ferali The Ferali are found across the globe; a stateless, itinerant people with some unique qualities. To mature, for the Ferali, is not just to grow, but to shed one form for another. And to reach adulthood is to master not just your own mind, but your own shape, shifting seamlessly from a humanoid to a beast. For these abilities, the Ferali are generally objects of suspicion to other races, if not outright persecution. Certainly the latter when it comes to their relationship with humanity. During the Fourth War against the Gods, both sides suspected the Ferali as spies for the enemy, and committed horrific atrocities against them. Since then, Ferali have been scarce among humans, at least in groups. The genocide of the Ferali resulted in not just a decimation of their numbers, but the destruction of their culture as well. Not that this culture had been particularly consistent. In ancient times, they found homes in the courts of kings and nobles, prized as spymasters, scholars, and generals. Then, with successive waves of hostility, they were reduced to courtiers, jesters, and then traveling performers. Yet, in all this change, there was something dear and critical to who they were: their close-knit family structure, essential to passing down accumulated knowledge of the Ferali arts. It was the Ferali family that was systematically dismantled in the Fourth War: Elders and Masters were targeted, children were turned against their parents, assemblies of more than two Ferali were outlawed. And though attitudes towards the Ferali have relaxed considerably over the years, the damage lasts. Ferali, where they still live among us, will often try to pass as humans for the duration of their lives, or else join circuses where they are exotified and exploited. Most humans do not even recognize or understand the Ferali as a separate race, believing them to be human sorcerers. The main exception is in the Old World, where the legacy of the Ferali, as both heroes and villains, is strongest. Here they have become the centerpiece of an ongoing struggle between the colonialists and the revolutionaries, the latter of which point to the Ferali genocide as the most egregious evils of Imperial rule. In some revolutionary havens, the Ferali have been invited to reconvene and rebuild their lost culture--a meaningful gesture, but perhaps not entirely genuine. For what will it truly mean to salvage history and memory under the watchful eye of armed radicals? Note: To our knowledge, Ferali are born in a form resembling their mother, and enter a “mutable” period during their adolescence, finally settling on a permanent appearance in adulthood. If properly trained during their mutable period, they may have a secondary shape, usually that of a beast, in their adulthood. Some ancient Ferali were known to have many secondary shapes, or to transform into beasts of their own imagining.